HR: 17:15h
AN: PP24A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and the Global Carbon Cycle: Progress and Promise
AU: * Zachos, J C
EM: jzachos@es.ucsc.edu
AF: University of California, Earth Sciences Dept, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 United States
AB: The initial documentation of a short-lived, but extreme global warming event (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum; PETM) and carbon isotope excursion (CIE) coincident with a major benthic foraminiferal extinction horizon at the end of the Paleocene (Kennett & Stott, 1991) represents one of the more exciting and important contributions to the field of Paleoceanography. In the time since this discovery, substantial progress has been made toward developing a comprehensive understanding of key aspects of this event including the character of the global carbon cycle perturbation, and impacts on climate, biogeochemical cycles, and marine and terrestrial ecosystems. In this presentation, I review the latest findings of investigations of pelagic and shallow marine sequences designed to provide new constraints on both the tempo and magnitude of the CIE and associated geochemical anomalies. In particular, I will focus on bulk and planktonic carbon isotope and proxy records of carbonate dissolution generated from analyses of Pacific and Atlantic deep sea cores, and discuss implications for changes in ocean carbon chemistry and the mass of carbon added to the ocean during this event. I will also explore several outstanding issues regarding the rate and magnitude of carbon fluxes during the PETM, and possible strategies to address these issues. Kennett, J. P., and L.D. Stott, Abrupt deep-sea warming, palaeoceanographic changes and benthic extinctions at the end of the Palaeocene, Nature, 353, 225-229, 1991.
UR: http://es.ucsc.edu/%7Esilab/biocomplex/index.htm
DE: 4806 Carbon cycling (0428)
DE: 4930 Greenhouse gases
DE: 4948 Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005